2025.12.06 – One Shared Classroom in Countries the News Rarely Shows

Key Takeaways

• This article looks at everyday school life for children in Mozambique (Africa), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Africa), Yemen (Asia), Afghanistan (Asia), Nepal (Asia), Haiti (North America), Guatemala (North America), Sierra Leone (Africa), Sudan (Africa), Rwanda (Africa), Mali (Africa), Togo (Africa), Cambodia (Asia), Papua New Guinea (Oceania), Honduras (North America) and Niger (Africa), often called “grey countries” because they rarely appear in global news.
• The focus is on simple scenes: children walking long distances to school, crowded classrooms with few books, homework done after work in fields, markets or factories, and dreams that sound very similar to those of children anywhere else.
• Recent global reports show that, even in late twenty twenty-five, hundreds of millions of children are still out of school, most of them in low-income or crisis-affected countries, so every child who manages to sit in a classroom in these places is doing something quietly remarkable.
• Humanitarian and education organisations describe schooling in emergencies as a lifeline, because a classroom can give safety, routine and hope in the middle of war, disaster or deep poverty.

Story & Details

A simple idea: one classroom, many countries

Imagine a single classroom that stretches across the world. One part stands in a village in Mozambique (Africa). Another part lies under a sheet-metal roof in Guatemala (North America). A third part is a tent in Sudan (Africa) after people fled fighting. The walls, floors and languages change, but the scene is similar: a child with a school bag, more full of dreams than of notebooks.

These are countries that often stay blank in maps of clicks and headlines. They are not always the centre of global debates, yet millions of children there wake up and try to reach school every day. The year is late twenty twenty-five, and big reports talk about numbers and graphs, but the day of a child still starts with a simple question: “Can I get to class today?”

Morning: long roads to school

In many small villages in Mozambique (Africa), the school day begins on dusty paths. Children walk several kilometres, some in old shoes, some barefoot. On the way they share a piece of bread, tell jokes, sing small songs and talk about what the teacher explained the day before. Dust sticks to their clothes and their skin. For some, this walk is the longest and most dangerous part of the day.

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Africa), the path to school often runs through thick green forest. When heavy rain falls, the ground turns into deep mud and the forest seems to eat the road. Uniforms, where there are uniforms, are dirty before the children arrive. Some carry a notebook and a pencil. Others write on loose sheets of paper or remember the lesson in their heads. They still arrive late, wet and tired, but they arrive.

In Yemen (Asia) and Afghanistan (Asia), the road to school is not only long. It can also be risky because of conflict and insecurity. Families quietly ask themselves each morning if it is safe enough to send children out. Money is tight, news is worrying, but many boys and girls insist. They say they want to be doctors, teachers, engineers or journalists. Some stay home when things feel too dangerous or when they must work. Those who reach the classroom often carry not only their own hopes, but also the dreams of friends and brothers who could not go that day.

In the hills of Nepal (Asia), the way to school climbs up and down the mountain. Children walk along narrow paths, step by step, and cross rivers on hanging or simple wooden bridges. The air is cold. The view is beautiful. The risk is real, especially when there is rain or snow. Missing one day can feel like putting the dream of a different life one more step away.

Inside the classroom: what is there and what is missing

In Haiti (North America), a classroom can be full of life and empty of materials at the same time. There may be forty or fifty children in a small room, with broken desks and cracked walls. Often there is only one book for several students. A teacher uses chalk and a worn blackboard to explain new ideas. The children fall quiet when the lesson starts. Their eyes shine when they finally understand something that seemed hard before. Seen from outside, cameras might show only ruins. Inside, there is also patient hope.

In Guatemala (North America) and Honduras (North America), many schools are simple concrete buildings. Roofs of thin metal sheets make loud noise when it rains. Lessons move between Spanish and Indigenous languages, and children copy from the board because there are not enough printed pages for everyone. Cars, buses and street vendors can be heard through open windows without glass. Some days there is no electricity. Some days the water tap is dry. Some classes have no teacher. What does not run out is the will to learn.

In Sierra Leone (Africa) and Rwanda (Africa), classrooms sit on ground marked by war, epidemics and genocide in past years. Many parents there never had the chance to finish primary school. Now their sons and daughters sit at desks that communities rebuilt with great effort. Some teachers are very young and are the first in their families with a diploma. Lessons in reading and numbers mix with talks about health, peace and how to live together without violence. Learning to read is also learning to imagine a future that is not just a copy of the past.

In Sudan (Africa) and Mali (Africa), conflict, displacement and political unrest have often broken up normal schooling. Classes sometimes take place under tents, in borrowed church halls, or simply in the open air. There are few notebooks and few walls, but there is still a front of the class where a teacher stands, and there are still children repeating new words. In these places, a simple maths or reading lesson becomes a small act of resistance: even if everything around them is unstable, learning continues.

After class: work and homework

When the last lesson ends in Togo (Africa) or Niger (Africa), the day is far from over. Many children go straight to work. Some help in the fields, planting or harvesting. Others sell fruit, snacks or small items on the street. Many look after younger brothers and sisters or walk to collect water. Homework is done when there is time: in the last light of the sun, under a weak bulb, or by the flame of a candle. The problem is not that these children do not care about school. They simply have a long list of duties.

In Cambodia (Asia), the sound of school bells mixes with the noise of nearby factories and workshops. Some students go to class in the morning and work in the afternoon. Others work first and study later. Homework may be done on the floor, on a shared bed or on the family table where people also sew or sell goods. Many children keep going with their exercises not because they fear the teacher, but because they hold a quiet hope that study can open more doors than were open for their parents.

In Papua New Guinea (Oceania), the walk home can be as hard as the walk to school. Rain turns paths into rivers of mud. Children protect their notebooks in plastic bags or under their clothes. At home, they live between many languages. They hear local tongues from family and neighbours and use another language for school. Stories from elders mix with written stories from textbooks. The world may not know much about these local languages, but children speak them well and work to add one more language on top.

Dreams that sound familiar

In all these countries, when children are asked what they want to be, their answers sound very familiar. A girl in Mozambique (Africa) says she wants to be a doctor. A boy in Nepal (Asia) says he wants to be an engineer. A girl in Haiti (North America) dreams of being a teacher. A boy in Cambodia (Asia) wants to be a football player. Others talk about becoming nurses, pilots, computer workers or small business owners. Many say they simply want their own children to study more than they could.

The dreams are not the main problem. The path is. Schools are fragile. Teachers are often underpaid or not paid on time. Books, desks and toilets are missing. In some places there is conflict, hunger or disaster. In late twenty twenty-four, a major education report said that about two hundred and fifty-one million children and young people were still out of school worldwide, and that progress in cutting this number had almost stopped over nearly ten years. That means the road from dream to job is still blocked for many children in the very countries where education could change lives the most.

A tiny Dutch language corner

There is also a small link to classrooms in the Netherlands (Europe). In Dutch, the word for school is “school”, almost the same as in English, and the word for class is “klas”. A child in Rotterdam (Europe) and a child in Rwanda (Africa) may live very different lives, yet both can say they are going to school or to class. This tiny language bridge is a reminder that, under many layers of difference, the idea of a classroom is shared.

Conclusions

The picture that appears from Mozambique (Africa) to Papua New Guinea (Oceania) is not simple. There are long walks through dust, forest and mud. There are classrooms with cracked walls and only one book for many small hands. There are children who go to work in fields, markets and factories as soon as the bell rings. There are also jokes on the road, songs on the path, bright eyes at the moment of understanding and teachers who keep going even when their own situation is hard.

Global reports in twenty twenty-four and twenty twenty-five show that the number of children without school is still very high, especially in low-income and crisis-hit countries. At the same time, education agencies and child-rights groups call school a lifeline in emergencies, because a simple classroom can give routine, safety and a sense of future in the middle of chaos. In this light, every child who reaches a class in Yemen (Asia), Sudan (Africa) or Haiti (North America), and every teacher who opens a lesson there, is doing quiet but important work.

The idea of one shared classroom across many “grey countries” helps make this clear. These places are not grey in reality. They are full of colour, noise and effort. They look grey only on the maps where clicks and headlines are missing. As long as children in these countries keep walking to school, sitting down at desks or on floors, and writing their first letters and numbers, that shared classroom is alive. Paying attention to their school day, even for a short time, is a way to say that no classroom, and no country, should be invisible.

Selected References

[1] UNESCO Global Education Monitoring Report. “Out-of-school rate.” As of twenty twenty-three, an estimated two hundred and seventy-two million children and young people were out of school, with almost three quarters of them in Central and Southern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. https://www.unesco.org/gem-report/en/view/outofschool

[2] United Nations Office at Geneva. “251 million children still out of school worldwide, UNESCO reports.” News story, thirty-one October twenty twenty-four, summarising key findings from the twenty twenty-four Global Education Monitoring Report and stressing that the out-of-school population has fallen by only about one per cent in almost a decade. https://www.ungeneva.org/en/news-media/news/2024/10/99797/251-million-children-still-out-school-worldwide-unesco-reports

[3] UNICEF. “Education in emergencies.” Overview of how education programmes support children during wars, disasters and other crises, including safe learning spaces, trained teachers and protection services. https://www.unicef.org/education/emergencies

[4] UNICEF. “UNICEF Digital Learning in Emergencies: Frameworks, Approaches, Initiatives.” Executive brief, November twenty twenty-five, describing how digital tools are used to reach crisis-affected learners and noting that two hundred and thirty-four million children in such contexts urgently need educational support. https://eiehub.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Digital-Learning-In-Emergencies-and-Crisis-Situations_Frameworks.Aproaches.Initiatives_Shorter-Version.pdf

[5] UNICEF. “UNICEF Education Think Piece #10: Education in Emergencies.” Short video that explains why schooling is vital in crisis situations and how education in emergencies works in practice. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0i61lxyUBvs

Appendix

Education in emergencies
This term refers to organised teaching and learning in situations of crisis, such as war, displacement or natural disaster, where schooling aims to protect children, give them routine and support their recovery while also providing basic skills.

Global Education Monitoring Report
This is an annual report produced by UNESCO that tracks progress and challenges in education around the world, including how many children are in school, how much governments spend on education and how fairly opportunities are shared.

Grey countries
In this article, grey countries are places that rarely appear in international news or website traffic maps, so they can look like blank or muted areas on screens, even though daily life there, including school life, is rich and active.

Out-of-school children
These are children who are not attending any formal or non-formal school at the level that matches their age, either because they never started, dropped out or cannot access education due to poverty, conflict, discrimination or other barriers.

UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a United Nations agency that works with governments and partners to support education, culture, science and communication, and that produces major global reports on schooling.

UNICEF
The United Nations Children’s Fund is a United Nations agency that supports children’s rights and well-being worldwide, including through programmes that keep education going in poor, remote and crisis-affected areas.